Stan the scrap paper man

Book 8 Page 4

‘Stan,’ the scrap paper man

Us kids referred to him as, "Stan, the scrap paper man."

He use to walk around our holiday shack

Picking up bits of paper,

Picking up scraps.

They say Stan had an accident many years ago.

He fell off his horse racing in the royal show.

They say he was an "up and coming young horse Jock, "

that is, until he fell off.

Some of the kids ragged him and called him names,

but he just smiled as if he thought those kids were just wild horses that needed to be tamed.

He was a large man with a strange hump in his back,

and many people thought that -in the brain department - he seriously lacked. Which was I suppose, 'true.'

For Stan couldn’t work at a regular job for he really was a bit slow,

But inside I think he was quick to know.

To know of his place in society, lovingly picking up papers with charm and grace.

I think Stan’s job in life, (according to Stan) was to clean up the whole place,

and what’s more, he did it ‘all for free.’

And now that I’m an adult I can’t help but wonder about old Stan,

that quiet unassuming man.

It seems now that he was not just cleaning up the streets of scraps.

-For Stan rings bells deep down inside of me, as if my very soul he did catch ,and maybe, - he has given that a bit of a spring cleaning too.

I think he knew this then, as I seem to know it now.

So for me, Stan will stay forever in my heart,

this strange and unassuming and even alluring man that we kids called

“Stan, the scrap paper man.”